Paul Heckingbottom handed Tom Pearce his debut for Leeds United’s first-team in their most recent Championship clash.
With Charlie Taylor’s Leeds departure seemingly looking imminent a year before he actually left Elland Road, Tyler Denton was undoubtedly marked as one to keep an eye on when he marked his senior debut in August 2016 for the Whites by scoring a stunning winner in the League Cup clash with Luton Town.
Denton – who joined Leeds in 2003 – would only manage two more appearances for the first-team last season however, and he would not emerge as Taylor’s immediate successor at Leeds, instead joining Port Vale on loan in the first month of this campaign. But while the loan was initially supposed to be for the entire season, he has been back at his parent club since January and has featured for the Whites’ under-23s.
While he has been on the first-team bench following his return, he is yet to play under Paul Heckingbottom, and that is perhaps a worrying sign given that Tom Pearce was handed his debut for the home game against Sheffield Wednesday last weekend.
With Laurens De Bock injured and the likes of Gaetano Berardi and Vurnon Anita struggling on the left, Denton may have hoped that his chance was potentially imminent. But instead, it was Pearce who was given an opportunity.
Heckingbottom has not been afraid to rotate his options, so Denton just needs to keep pushing and impressing when he can. It is too soon to write him off becoming a first-teamer at Elland Road.
However, Pearce’s selection ahead of the 22-year-old hints that he may be slightly further down the pecking order than some would have expected.
And as it would be a mistake for Heckingbottom to not add to his left-back options in the summer, Denton is perhaps facing an uphill battle trying to prove that he can still be the success with Leeds that many fans hoped he’d be when he curled that stunning effort into the back of the net at Kenilworth Road.
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